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Acknowledgment of what is and abandonment of what is of no use – when natural and intrinsic – is an exhilaration. Where the two combine and leave a new perspective on the familiar is something for which I strive, like Paul Serúsier’s abandonment of representation in his painting The Talisman, on the instruction of another Paul, Mr. Gauguin. In some ways a bridge between the representational Impressionists and the Abstract Expressionist upstarts – I don’t think the context should matter (regardless of how interesting it may be from an academic standpoint). I can imagine how Serúsier felt as he forwent aspects of the world in front of him to make what he desired. Even while working in representational forms he was aware of what he did not need – and acted in accordance with such. This is a quality which I can truly admire, a merging of what one loves and keeps and expands upon and rejection (different than scorn or outrage) of that which displeases.

The Talisman, 1888. Thanks, wikipedia.